Two-Faced Friends

by Dyer, Dorothy;

  “What are we doing now?” Pamela asked. It was always Princess who decided where to go and what to do. It wasn’t worth it otherwise. If someone else suggested something and they did it, Princess didn’t stop moaning about what they should be doing instead.

  “We’re going to the mall,” said Princess. “I need to do some shopping.”

  There was a small shopping mall in the township where the girls sometimes hung out.

  The group of girls made their way there, laughing at each other’s jokes about the people passing them.

  “That boy looks like he slept in his clothes and then washed in them,” Zikhona said.

  “And look at that girl,” shrieked Princess. “Have you ever seen such shoes? She must have borrowed them from her gogo.”

  Lelethu looked down at her pumps, thankful that she had something good to wear. But what would she wear during winter? Surely the girls would laugh at her boots from the Eastern Cape. But she wouldn’t worry about that now.

  Once in the mall Princess led the girls to the pharmacy. It was quiet, with just one other customer, a woman with a baby on her back. Lelethu breathed in. Pharmacies smelled the same wherever you were, of soap and medicine. The assistant helped the woman with her baby, and then stood silently at the counter, watching the girls.

  Just then Busi came in. She saw Lelethu and smiled, but then Princess came up behind her. “Bit late to be buying condoms, dear. Too early for nappies, I guess. By the way, how’s the daddy? Is he there in your time of need?”

  Busi looked like Princess had hit her, and moved away quickly. Princess looked at the shelf of products in front of her.

  “Now I really need that Vaseline,” she said to Zikhona.

  Lelethu couldn’t understand why she was telling Zikhona. Did everyone have to buy Princess’s things for her? But then suddenly Princess started calling for the assistant. “My friend here,” she said, dragging Lelethu along another aisle, “my friend is having terrible pains. What can I get her?” The assistant came to them.

  “What kind of pains – period pains?” she asked. Lelethu felt Princess pinch her arm, hard. She didn’t understand what was going on, but she just nodded. The assistant took them to the counter. “These pills are good,” she said. “Take two after you have eaten something. And use a hot-water bottle – that also really works.”

  “Oh, I’ve got those pills at home. I’ll give her some of mine,” said Princess, and then she smiled sweetly at the assistant. “Thanks so much for your help.”

  The group of girls left the shop again, Princess with her arm around Lelethu as if to help her walk. Once they were down the road Princess dropped her arm and turned to Zikhona. “Where is it?”

  Zikhona put her hand in her pocket and took out the Vaseline that had been in the pharmacy. Lelethu could not believe it. Zikhona had stolen it! She gasped, and Princess turned to her.

  “Don’t look all shocked, village girl. If you want to be a city chick you gotta get tough. Tough like me.” Then she flashed one of her sweetest smiles at Zikhona. “Thanks so much, Zikhona, you’re a real friend.”

  For the last few days Princess had been walking and talking mainly with Pamela, but now she linked arms with Zikhona, and on they went together.

  Lelethu’s legs were feeling shaky. What if Princess asked her to steal something? Surely the time would come when it was her turn? She felt terrified.

  But then Princess turned to her and said, “Did you hear, chommie? You are all invited to my house Friday night for a sleepover. It’s going to be fantastic.”

  Lelethu’s heart floated up like a balloon. This was the first time Princess had included her in a sleepover. She couldn’t wait.

  Chapter 9

  “So you are staying at home to look after the house?” her aunt said. “I suppose I can trust you to do that.”

  It was Friday night. Her aunt was going to a stokvel meeting and coming home late. Bontle was staying at her friend’s house. Auntie was allowing her out for the night because she knew the girl’s mother.

  But Lelethu had no intention of staying at home. All she needed to do was to put a pile of clothes in the bed so it looked like someone was sleeping under the blankets. In any case her aunt was unlikely to check on her if she knew Bontle wasn’t there. She only worried about Bontle.

  After Bontle and her aunt had gone out, Lelethu dressed in her good outfit and went out onto the street. She met Zikhona on the corner and they made their way together to Princess’s.

  Princess’s house was bigger than her aunt’s house, and fancier. That night was just perfect. The girls ate cold chicken and salad, and watched a movie on TV, shrieking at the kissing and touching. Princess’s mother was out, and one of the girls had brought two quarts of beer. They passed the beer around. Lelethu was nearly sick at the smell, but she pretended to take a gulp when it was passed to her.

  The girls started using their phones, giggling at photos and comments. “Here, sign up for a Mxit account,” said Princess. “I’ll help you.”

  “I already did,” said Lelethu.

  “What’s your password? I’ll get you on,” said Princess.

  Lelethu felt uncomfortable. Why did Princess want to know her password? But then she felt bad for being suspicious. After all, she and Pholisa knew each other’s passwords.

  “Ladylele,” she replied, and they laughed.

  Lelethu reached out for the phone, to send a message to Pholisa, but Princess playfully raised it out of her reach. “Wait, listen to this song, guys,” she said, putting the cell phone on the table. She started swaying to the music, bending down, wiggling her boobs that were nearly popping out of her top. The other girls clapped and shouted encouragement. Zikhona grabbed her cell phone, and took a photo. Princess laughed, and posed and pouted like a model as Zikhona and Pamela took photos of her. She turned around, peering over her shoulder with her bum sticking out, her back arched.

  “Beautiful,” said Pamela.

  “My turn,” said Zikhona. She went a little bit further, pulling her shirt off her shoulder, almost letting her boobs show.

  “And you, village girl?” Pamela teased. “Or are you too shy?”

  Lelethu got an excited feeling in her stomach. Why shouldn’t she show them her stuff? She knew she had a beautiful body, better than Zikhona’s, whose bum wobbled like jelly. And she would go even further, taking off her shirt completely. She whipped it off. Too late she realised how small and see-through her bra was. Right now she didn’t care as the other girls shrieked and clicked their phones at her.

  “That’s my city girl!” said Princess. “Shake your booty.”

  Lelethu felt like a celebrity as the other girls took photos of her twirling around in her bra. She put her hips out, put her head to one side, and the girls took photo after photo.

  Just then there was a knock at the door.

  “It’s Siyabonga!” a girl shouted. Lelethu froze in shock. It couldn’t be. And there was Princess opening the door and –

  But it wasn’t Siyabonga. It was Princess’s older brother who worked at the factory. He looked at Lelethu and whistled as she rushed around trying to find her shirt. The other girls were laughing as they all ran to Princess’s room and slammed the door shut.

  Lelethu felt ashamed now. “Why did you open the door?” she asked. But the other girls carried on taking pictures of each other and pretended not to hear her.

  “Take a picture of me,” said Asiphe.

  “Let me use your phone. I don’t have one,” said Lelethu.

  Princess heard her. “My poor chommie. Don’t you worry. I have a plan for you.” And she came over to Lelethu, showing her the pictures. Lelethu looked at the phone. There she was, her nipples showing clearly through the small, faded bra. Somehow she looked so different, so grown-up.

  “Please, Princess, delete those phot
os. My aunt would kill me.”

  Princess laughed. “Don’t you worry about a thing, girlie. These photos are strictly between us friends.”

  But for the rest of the night Lelethu couldn’t completely relax. Why did she always do wild things that she regretted later? When would she learn to be more careful? The other girls kept their tops on. She was the only one who had taken hers off. She hated the idea of those photos sitting there on Princess’s phone, for anyone to see. What did her mother always say to her? “Qiqa phambi kokuba wense.”

  She slept on the floor, on blankets, and woke up early. She was glad that she had the excuse to go home before her aunt woke up.

  She reached through the window to find the spare key and crept into her bed.

  Chapter 10

  On Monday it felt good to see Princess and the girls, to laugh about Friday night in a way that made other girls feel left out.

  “We had fun, girls!” Princess roared, and they all shrieked excitedly.

  Lelethu noticed Bontle watching them, could feel the questions in her eyes. But then she turned back to the group.

  “Ooohh, Lelethu,” said Akhona, looking at Princess’s phone. “What were you doing?”

  “Hey, chommie, don’t go showing those pics around,” Lelethu said.

  “Don’t worry, Lelethu darling, we’ve only shown them to Siyabonga,” said Pamela, then laughed at Lelethu’s shocked face. “Chill, sweetie, just joking.”

  She was glad that the cell phones were put into bags for a while so that she could forget about the photos. And at break the girls were looking at Facebook, showing each other pics of some hot guy, and no one was looking at the weekend photos any more. She relaxed inside.

  For a moment, just for a moment, she wished she was back home again, where it wasn’t such hard work knowing how to behave. She wanted to talk to Pholisa and laugh over things they both found funny – not to have to try so hard to fit in.

  But very quickly that thought was gone, and she was relishing the feeling of hanging out with the coolest girls in school.

  “Poor Lelethu,” said Princess, “she needs a real phone.” She looked around. The other girls were all laughing at something on Zikhona’s phone and were not listening. Princess lowered her voice. “I will organise one for you.” She leaned back on the wall, picking at her nail varnish. “Have you seen Miss Nombembe’s new phone?”

  “No, I didn’t know she had one,” said Lelethu. “But how can I ever get a phone like Miss Nombembe’s?”

  Princess laughed a very loud laugh and the others looked around at her and then went back to Zikhona’s phone. “Chommie,” Princess was speaking softly again, “we’re not getting you a phone like Miss’s. We’re going to get you Miss Nombembe’s phone!”

  Lelethu could not believe what she was hearing. “You mean, steal it?”

  “Of course, what did you think I meant? Ask her to hand it over? Thanks so much, Miss, so kind of you, and while you’re about it, give me your laptop too?” Princess looked hard at Lelethu. “Don’t tell me you’re a goody-goody mama’s baby?”

  The scorn in Princess’s voice was too much. “No, no of course not. I just don’t know how I’d do it, that’s all.”

  “Leave it to me, chommie,” Princess replied. “Let Princess look after you.” She took out her own phone. “And you know what? After a few days I’ll take Miss Nombembe’s phone, and then I will give you mine. I know you love it.” She smiled kindly at Lelethu. But Lelethu was hardly listening. Her heart was pounding so loudly she felt sick.

  That afternoon Lelethu didn’t ask Princess if she could visit her, but went back home to her aunt’s house.

  * * *

  In the evening her aunt was in a good mood, and had made jelly and custard. Bontle and Lelethu chatted a little at the table about school, and laughed about how a younger student had broken a window with a soccer ball that day. Then, when her aunt started demanding that she do the washing up, Bontle got up to help her, and dried the plates without being asked.

  As she lay in bed that night, hearing Bontle’s slow, steady breathing as she slept next to her, Lelethu thought about Princess’s words. Surely she did not mean that about stealing the teacher’s phone. That was a serious crime, something you could get expelled for, even put into prison! And what about nice Miss Nombembe, one of the teachers who really tried to teach well, and who was always so kind to Lelethu?

  When Lelethu was young she had eaten some biscuits without asking her mother, and her mother had been furious. And once she had taken a bit of extra sugar when the bowl was full and her mother wasn’t looking. Otherwise she hadn’t stolen a thing in her life.

  But what had Princess said later? “Miss Nombembe has insurance – all the teachers do. It’s not a big deal. She gets a nice fat salary. Why not take from her?”

  Maybe she was right. Miss Nombembe would get another phone from insurance and then everybody would be happy. Still, somehow just the thought of it stopped her from falling asleep. As she was drifting off her heart would jump and she would see her mother’s shocked face, as if she knew what Lelethu was thinking. She thought of Pholisa, who had always admired Lelethu, whatever she did. What would Pholisa think of her now?

  Thinking of Pholisa also chased away all chance of sleep. What was happening with her now? During the day she had been glad she couldn’t get hold of her as it was too complicated to remember her old life. But now she wished she could call her and hear her warm voice in her ear: “You’re so crazy, Lele. I love you!”

  She felt terribly alone.

  Chapter 11

  The next morning Lelethu felt tired. Her aunt shouted at her for being lazy, and Bontle hardly said a word to her. The friendly feelings from the night before had gone. So she was happy to get to school to see Princess.

  “We can’t do it today, chommie,” Princess whispered to her. “There’s a show. We’ll only do it tomorrow.”

  Lelethu felt a wave of relief. Tomorrow was far away. Everything might be different then.

  Everyone was talking about the show during class. “It’s performers from that talent show, the one that Ntombi nearly won in Jozi.”

  “I saw some of them,” said Asiphe. “They looked so hot.”

  The girls managed to sit next to each other at the back of the hall and munched on a bag of chips Princess had brought in. They were by far the noisiest group. The setting-up was taking ages and their voices got louder and louder as their impatience grew. At last the sound system was working and Miss Nombembe was on the stage, trying to get everyone to keep quiet. But only when Mr Khumalo came on did the audience start settling down.

  Nobody kept quiet for long, though.

  “Go home, fat boy!” shouted Princess to one poor singer, who after announcing that his song was called Lonely Forever, could hardly be heard above the chatting.

  Lelethu felt sorry for him – he looked like he was about to cry. But Princess nudged her to join in the laughter. “He doesn’t need to sing, that one. He needs to work out, otherwise he’ll definitely be lonely forever.”

  “You can just tell he’s noh ten days,” said Zikhona, tossing her braids in contempt as the boy finally left the stage.

  Lelethu burned inside. But no one else said anything or looked at her. She felt relief relaxing her, and laughed loudly at Princess’s comments about Ntombi, the girl from Harmony High who had got to the finals.

  “Sweet voice, but what a baby that girl is. You almost expect her to be coming on with her mother.”

  “And now even Mzi doesn’t look at her. Only eyes for that girl Thandi.”

  But even Princess didn’t have a rude remark for her voice, which was pure and beautiful. And she had a lovely shy smile too. Lelethu wished she knew her. She had seen her with Busi. Maybe she could still get to meet her.

  “Now, all the way fr
om KwaZulu-Natal, is … Lindiwe!” shouted the announcer. A thin girl on high heels ran onto stage. The audience roared with laughter when she wobbled on a step, but she righted herself and tossed her braids. Boys started whistling and calling to her as she strutted up and down the stage.

  “She’s meant to be performing with her sister. They are twins,” said Pamela. “Lindiwe and Sindiwe. But I saw on TV one got that disease when you don’t eat because you want to be thin.”

  “That one looks like she’s got it as well,” said Lelethu. “I”ve never seen anyone so skinny.”

  “The other one is worse,” Pamela assured her. “So crazy, these girls starving themselves when they have all the food they want.”

  “It’s sad,” said Lelethu.

  “But she is so gorgeous,” said Princess. “Look at her. She has swag! Look at those shoes. Look at that make-up. That girl is the prize. I wish I was her twin.”

  Lelethu looked. Lindiwe’s make-up was so thick you could hardly see what she looked like. She pouted and wiggled in a way that would have sent Pholisa and Lelethu into fits of giggles at home. She could imagine them in Pholisa’s living room, jumping around and imitating Lindiwe’s silly moves. But here Princess and her friends thought she was fantastic.

  “Now that is a city chick,” Princess shouted into Lelethu’s ear. “Take note.”

  Lelethu nodded and smiled, hiding her true thoughts deep inside.

  At the end of her song Lindiwe from KwaZulu-Natal blew kisses to a group of boys in the front, and everyone made so much noise that Lelethu thought the roof might blow off.

  As they all spilled out of the hall, Lelethu was glad again to be part of this group: the cool girls who everyone made way for. She saw Bontle standing back too as they passed. Giving her a smug smile, she put her arm around Princess. Zikhona did the same.

  “That girl is even making her own CD – I read about it,” said Zikhona. “Her shoes. I-grand. And those skirts, I would die for one of those.”

  “Maybe then Siyabonga would ask you to the dance,” said Asiphe.